Homeschool 360

Well, not everything is rainbows and unicorns in homeschooling.  That shouldn’t be a surprise.  But what can drag down a homeschool teacher on a day to day basis?  What drags down the homeschool student?  Sometimes, it’s the same thing.

Discipline:

An obvious homeschooling con is the new level of discipline that must be introduced into your home in order to succeed.  I’m not just talking about the discipline of your children either.  I’m talking about YOUR discipline, too.  Let’s face it, most of us don’t live by a rigorous moment by moment schedule.  We may get up at a certain time, go to work at a certain time, eat lunch at a certain time and so forth.  But in our experience in 7 years of homeschooling 4 kids, homeschooling tends to break down the further you move away from a set structure.

What does  a successful, structured homeschool look like? I’m not saying you need to block out every hour for various subjects.  I’m saying that you need a set format for your schooling that provides both incentives and penalties for your child’s success and failure in their lessons.  Any good homeschool curriculum will provide a structured layout for your day or week, but without proper incentive, it’s easy for the distractions of home to derail your schooling.

In our house, we have tried several incentive approaches with varying degrees of success.  The tricky part is developing an incentive-based approach that is easy to track,  maintain and live up to.  Promising your child that he or she will get to pick out a candy bar at the end of the day at the grocery store if they finish their homework may not be enough incentive for some kids.  Or, it may not be possible if your plan for the day fails.  Failing to follow through even when it’s beyond your control will deflate your student’s motivation.

Our current incentive is a points-based system whereby the children earn points for completing each subject for the day thoroughly and correctly.  Each subject is worth 10 points which can be traded in for a variety of rewards such as media minutes (video games, cartoons), staying up past their bedtime, etc.  This has worked well for us because the success of their siblings is a great motivator to their own success.

Finances:

Homeschooling is a decision that arises from a desire for a better education that what our tax dollars will buy us.  The great irony is that if you choose in home schooling, the tax revenue you generate for the public school system goes to waste (for your use) and you then have to pony up even more money for homeschool curriculum, after school athletics and various other expenses that are generally “free” to public school students.

Fortunately, there’s eBay! And countless other websites that offer used home school curriculum for much cheaper than new.  Let’s also not forget that a formal curriculum, while handy, is not always even necessary if you can pull together the resources you need from various other sources.

Beyond that, let’s not forget that in order to homeschool successfully, at least one parent needs to stay at home.  Clearly, that can be a issue if the primary breadwinner is unable to carry the financial burden on their own.  All I can say to address this is that, as a financial planner, I see many people living beyond their means in the first place.  If homeschooling is important to you, analyze your household budget and see if it’s truly within your ability to survive on one income.  Many times, it’s just a matter of re-prioritizing.

Time:

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to homeschooling successfully is time.  This issue ties back into the first point I made on discipline because a well-disciplined homeschool will generally have a better handle on time management.  If not, you may find yourself trying to finish that science project at 10:30 at night.

For us, our day starts at the breakfast table for Bible after the morning chores are done.  Then the kids have their individual assignment sheets in their notebooks so self-study can begin, drawing on the wisdom of Mom or Dad (if I’m home) for help where necessary.  A trip to the Y for workouts, socialization and just to get out of the house happens just before lunch.  After lunch, the afternoon chores and assignments are tackled, hopefully leading to the ability to spend “points” later in the day for the fun stuff.

In my mind, there really aren’t a whole lot of cons to homeschooling.  Notice I left out the typical cons that many uniformed people in our society today use against homeschool, such as a lack of socialization, unqualified teachers, etc.  These aren’t issues in the majority of homeschool situations.  The point being, you can do it.